A cryptic crossword expert is uprooted from suburban England to rural Pennsylvania. How will he fare in the land of Aleros, ERAs and Oreos?

Saturday, May 23, 2009

NYT Sunday 5/24/09 - Everyone's a Wynner

We solved this Sunday New York Times crossword as a threesome again, but the combined brains failed to make much of a dent in the usual solving time. How do solvers like Dan Feyer manage to finish in less than five minutes - it's unbelievable?!

"Perpetual Motion" recalled the accompanying recent Listener Crossword: plotting out its infinity sign was a whole lot more difficult - the letters of sign for infinity weren't circled and they weren't in any particular order!

The theme also presented technical challenges for the blog that I'm not really used to: normally Sympathy Crossword Construction can create the whole grid image, but here I had to add the infinity sign afterwards with a graphics program. The freehand curves are a bit wobbly and don't satisfy my sense of aesthetic, but I'll have to live with that.

114-Across in this puzzle prompts a question I have for readers: what became of the "Wynner Awards" for crossword compiling? These seem similar to the "Ascot Gold Cup" award for the best Listener Crossword (voted on annually by the all-correct solvers for a calendar year). But apart from some tantalizing references in Trip Payne's Wikipedia page, I can't find out anything about the Wynner Awards.

91a knee {Gonitis locale}. Hunh? This one was new to the whole triumvirate and is too obscure even for Wikipedia, which just reckons Gonitis is a genus of moths of the Noctuidae family. Further researches show gonitis is the medical term for inflammation of the knee: it's in Webster's New International, but not the OED ... hmm.

14d halvas {Turkish sweets}. In Britain, sweets could mean either candies, or desserts. Halva is candy, but not as we know it, being based on unfamiliar ingredients like semolina or tahini.

Noteworthy

24a Ollie {North of Virginia}. What's north of Virginia? Must be the Old Line State or, paradoxically, West Virginia? No, we should remember that the first word may be a proper name, and think of Oliver North. Neat clue!

67a à clef {Roman ___}. Another beautiful clue: fill-in-the-blanks are usually the easiest type, right? Not this time, as you've got to stop thinking of Rome and realize that Roman is "novel" in French. A roman à clef is a factual story disguised as fiction: you need a key to unlock its mysteries. Citizen Kane is a famous example:

82a Mr. T {Clubber Lang portrayer in "Rocky III"}. Always nice to see a reference to Mr. T, as The A-Team was one of my fav shows of the 1980s ... required watching at tea time on Saturdays. I most identified with the character who was always winding B.A. up, viz "Howling Mad" Murdock.

114a Wynne {Arthur ___, inventor of the crossword puzzle}. Britain and America can both lay claim to Arthur Wynne (1862-1945), who was born in Liverpool, but worked for the New York World when he came up with the first crossword puzzle in 1913. Here is the historic first crossword.

26d opera fan {Met regular, e.g.}. Hey, a clue about us! Our next operas are Traviata and Cinders at Glimmerglass in August, when it can be hot enough that you need an opera fan of a different kind (no air conditioning!).

81d insanest {Most ready for commitment?}. Another great piece of misdirection, unless you happen to think getting married is an act of lunacy.